The party’s over. Buy back the family silver

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This week I went to a bullion dealer. He had run out of gold. I’m not the only one who thinks we’re doomed

Something funny happened to me on Thursday. I say “happened to me” because I was watching myself in an almost out-of-body way, an outsider, uninvolved, wondering why I was doing this — why he was doing this. One felt curious about this person’s behaviour.

For this person started hoarding, and doing so in a rather instinctive fashion. When animals start hoarding, something may be in the wind.

I have just joined a club called Two Brydges, in a tiny alley off St Martin’s Lane near Trafalgar Square in London. Heading for a first lunch there, I trudged through the rain from